organizing my home.

This year, as with every year, I take some time at the start of January to make lists. I am a chronic... nay... pathological list-maker. I will admit that there have been times (once or twice) in my life when I have made lists of lists.

Sometimes, the lists are fairly stupid and useless. Other times, the lists help me focus. In all reality, many times the lists help me focus and are a great motivator.

Such is the case with one particular list I made on the second day of January. I decided to start a new Project 52.

I know... "Dude. You didn't even finish your Project 52 in 2011. And your photography P52 here... well... where are the pictures??"

You would be right to ask those questions. In 2011 I was going along swimmingly. A self-portrait, family portrait, art portrait, iphonearoid, and video log each week. I kept that up for half a year. It was an ambitious undertaking, now that I think about it.

Then, my mom died. And I didn't feel like doing much of anything, least of all any of that. So I stopped.

Then I found out I was pregnant. And sick. And tired. And largely unmotivated. So, still no-go on the project.

Needless to say, it was dead in the water.

As for this year, I have taken pictures of my Hope every week, but I have been lazy with the cleanup on my computer so I have a lot to catch up on with the uploading and sharing.

Thankfully, I don't need a computer with sufficient memory to complete this new Project 52. Just some elbow grease and stick-to-itiveness.

I am taking this year to organize my entire home. One week at a time, one project at a time.

I am currently on Week Three.

And this is something that I am going to share with all of you, so that you can join in too, or follow along, or armchair judge, whatever you want to do.

I was asked to take before and after pictures, but sadly I didn't even think of that for the first couple of weeks. Maybe I'll do it for Week Four.

Here's how it is working for me: I decided that the only way I was going to get anything substantial done around here, with my little ones and my energy level being factored in, was to make a list of everything I wanted to do, then take each thing and devote a week to it. I even broke that down further to an hour a day. So, a total of seven hours for each project.

If the week comes to an end and I haven't finished, so be it. On to the next project. I am NOT beating myself up over this ish. If I fall off for a day, or a few days, I will not take any time whatsoever to sit around and assess how much I suck. I'll just get back to it the next day.

The good thing is, by the time my list got to Week Thirty, I had run out of things to do! Soooo, I have SEVERAL weeks until the end of the year that are weeks of pure grace. Meaning, I can just go back and tackle whatever it is I have not yet finished. Starting back at Week One.

I am going to share a little bit of my list with you. If this is something that you think will work for you, by all means, make your own list and get to it! You may find that you also have more weeks in the year than things that need to be organized. If so, breathe a sigh of relief! And have a glass of Moscato to celebrate.

A sampling of my list:

Week One: dining area
Week Two: kitchen
Week Three: laundry (meaning, EVERY bit of laundry in the ENTIRE house, done)
Week Four: hall closet
Week Five: bedroom closet
Week Six: bedroom
Week Seven: nursery/girls' room
Week Eight: nursery closet
Week Nine: living room
Week Ten: bathroom
Week Eleven: boys' room
Week Twelve: outside closet

When I sat and made this list, there really was no rhyme or reason. I just quickly rattled off room by room (in Evernote, which by the way is a TOTALLY dope app that I have used for a couple of years and HIGHLY recommend) and then realized that I had managed to give myself easier projects to start off. Whew. The harder projects are being micro-managed. For instance, living room: one day will be bookshelves organized, another day will be all music organized, and so on. Then, starting with Week Thirteen, I moved on to things that I wanted to paint, shelves I wanted to put up, things I want to hang on the walls, furniture that I need to procure, et cetera. And I broke those projects up by room, and of course gave myself a week for each room. Week Twenty-Nine says I need to have all important papers in a filing system in file boxes (or binders).

Week Thirty is blank, as are all the weeks following.

This, to me, is do-able. I have felt accomplished every day that I have worked on this, even if I haven't been able to devote a full hour to it. And there have been some days that I didn't get anything done. I have not completely finished any week yet, and I am fine with that because what I HAVE actually done looks soooo much better, and feels better and lighter. Plus, with the coming weeks, if I happen to complete any ahead of schedule, I'll devote the extra days to pick something to revisit.

An added bonus: my husband and little ones have pitched in. My little ones cleaned and vacuumed the hallway and stairs and the entire area is spotless. And my oldest son did a major clean-up on his room, so when I get to the week for his room, there really won't be much to do. I'll be able to go back and tackle leftover stuff from a previous project.

And in the end, all of that pent-up nesting that I never did while I was pregnant (because I just didn't feel like it dammit. What.) will come to fruition and my beloved TLH (Teeny Little Home) will be a lovely nest.

Are you in? Does this sound like a worthwhile project for you? Leave a comment below; let me know what you think and how you will make it work for you!

basic space.

Ahhhh. My lovely tens of readers. How I've missed you.

What have I been up to, you ask? Well, a lot's been afoot the past couple of weeks. Not the least of which is my son graduating eighth grade and becoming a high schooler, officially. I am officially homeschooling a high schooler. Now I've got to think about transcripts and credits and accreditation and stuff for real. Oh lawd.

And the past two weeks have been rife with activity. Rife. With. Activity. Four end-of-year presentations, two graduation ceremonies (some of my students graduated this year), an awards ceremony, a homeschool-day outing, three last-days-of-school (with events), and parties. Sigh.

It's been great fun, but tiring.

And yes, I still took pictures. And videos.

Which brings me to a song that I like. A lot.

It's a song by The xx, called Basic Space. I've loved it for several months, along with several other songs by this group. But the title is quite a propos to this post, and my small blogging hiatus.

Squishy, my Macbook (her official name is Elaine. Long story...), has been sorely lacking in basic. space.

I literally worked on clearing space on her all of last week. And yes, I have an external hard drive, but I hadn't actually been about the business of deleting files off of my computer after I had backed things up. Soooo, I could not upload any videos or photos until I had done so. As it stands at the moment, I have done so enough to get ONLY Week Nineteen blogged this evening. Which means that I have some more deleting to do before I can blog Week Twenty. And I am actually ON Week Twenty-One. Gaaaahhh.

But I will be the most determined worker bee and get it done, and you will have Week Nineteen to read tonight. Yay.

In the meantime, I leave you with some other 'basic' things... basic goals of mine for this summer.

• make an art canvas with (or without) my son every one or two weeks
• get back to my regular art journaling that I was doing last summer
• make tons of great food utilizing as much of this magic sauce as I can
• walk off some pounds and get in better shape
• make music, then make more music
• read daily
• journal daily
• pray daily (though that is a perpetual goal/habit, not just for the summer)
• keep remembering. With Niki. Because as I've said before, I love remembering.

I hope all of you out there in Blogreaderland are gearing up for a splendiferous Memorial Day. Much love.

[Oh, and if you've never watched any of my weekly vlogs before, you won't want to miss Week Nineteen. It's in two parts, and it's the best one I have done so far. I talk about my wonderful Master's Academy students, and how God used them at the end of the year to bring healing to my heart. Trust me; it's good. Really good. Unless you don't like to see people cry, ever. In which case you shouldn't watch it.]

11 things.

December 11 – 11 Things What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)


1. More distractions. Guess I didn't really need to get an XBox 360 and replace that Wii and subscribe to Netflix.


2. Fear. I am so done with it.


3. Late nights. Yes, I am a night owl, but I really do want to turn over a new leaf and go to bed earlier.


4. Pounds. I gained weight at some point this year and am kind of disgusted with myself for it. Don't know when exactly it happened, but I was frolicking merrily along towards a familiar and comfortable size 8 when all of a sudden I was a size 12. And I refuse to buy bigger clothes. I did that once with the jeggings and that's IT. No more. Darnit.


5. Large pores. About a month ago, I was minding my own business when suddenly (it seems) I aged overnight. Not happy. I looked in the mirror one morning and I had these pores around my nose that looked like polka dots, they seemed so big. Ugh.


6. Fear. I am OVER IT. 


7. Bad reports. Bad doctor reports, bad work reports, bad reports of any kind.


8. More sugar. I completely fell off the water wagon at Thanksgiving, and am determined to get back on. Or in. Or whatever. And stop drinking so many sugary drinks. Namely, sweet tea. One glass a day instead of a few glasses a day.


9. Stress. Of any kind.


10. Joint pain. In my left knee. I WILL find a way to get rid of it.


11. Fear. 
I know I've already said it.
It bears repeating.


How will I eliminate them? One breath and one prayer at a time.


Except Number One. Probably not going to actually eliminate it. Just keeping it one hundred witchall.

homeschooling log 2010: chapter two. music resources.

My friend Candra is starting to do research on homeschooling and asked me if I had a few recommendations for music resources. I felt I was more than qualified to answer this because I

a. love music,
b. have a rich and diverse musical heritage, courtesy of my parents,
c. am a music teacher,
d. have been homeschooling for nine years and as a result have tried/used a lot of stuff,
e. have worked tediously to cultivate an appreciation for music in my children and in others' children,
f. am just cool like that.

I could probably come up with more lettered reasons, but you get the point.

So, I prepared a list on my Amazon profile highlighting some of the resources that have been hits with me and my children. Three things about this list...

1. There are many other things that I have used that I do not recommend, because they're lame. Like some of those Baby Einstein-ish CDs and stuff like that. ( I don't mean to offend you if you like that stuff. I'm sure it's not ALL lame; it just has not been of much benefit over the years at my house, for several reasons.) So those things are not on the list.
2. There is no Classical music or Opera on this list. Because I need to make a separate list just for that. I am, after all, an opera singer. I had way too much to add to the list, so I figured that genre should just have a list of its own. (And yes, children can learn to like this type of music if introduced to it early and with enthusiasm.)
3. There are lots of great "...for Kids" compilations out there. Motown for Kids, 80's for Kids, Hip-Hop for Kids, Broadway for Kids, Beatles for Kids, et cetera. And you could certainly buy those. But why? If I have Stevie Wonder's and The Jackson 5's greatest hits (which my little ones LOVE), all I need to do is go and add more favorites from similar artists off of iTunes. You don't necessarily have to find something geared specifically toward children. A lot of the stuff that you enjoyed as a youth may be what your kids end up loving too; the songs don't have to be re-sung by kids' voices or anything like that. Just play good music for them. (And PLEASE, stay away from that KidzBop crap. Yes, I said it. It's crap. Don't get me started.)

So here's the list.
My kidlets loved this. Loved it. We wore it out last year when we were on the road a lot. They still enjoy it when I play it, even though we don't play it as often.

This one was a big hit too. The entire CD is excellent, but the second half are mostly slow songs so by the time they rolled around my kids would be asleep. Still a great CD though.

Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Lionel Hampton, Carmen McRae, Blossom Dearie, Louis Armstrong. I really don't need to go on. You get the picture. It's good stuff.

Sweet, mellow music. Great lullabies.

Hip, upbeat, dance-worthy tunes.

I was hoping this CD had a particular song with Alicia Keys on it, but it didn't. No matter. It's still a great CD, and one that my kids enjoyed a lot last year.

I remember watching those Schoolhouse Rock shorts on Saturday mornings in between the cartoons. Good times. And great educational material.

My oldest loved this one when he was little, and learned a lot from it.

This was what my oldest listened to a lot when he was in first grade. He liked it. I had the Subtraction one too, but can't seem to find it on Amazon. It's not as good as the Addition one anyway.

Fun, cute songs that my oldest never forgot. And he's almost fourteen.

Several classics as well as songs that will teach your child the books of the Bible. Also something my oldest has never forgotten.

Such a great worship CD.

"Hey, hey, HEYYYYY!" You should watch it.

One of my kidlets' favorite tunes, "Mahna Mahna," is on this collection. It's also on the For the Kids CD.

Be sure to check out my Listmania list for slightly more detailed descriptions of these items. I say slightly because I had to keep editing them down; they only allow 400 characters max per description. I was getting a little too verbose.

(Aaaannnd I apologize for the small text. I notice when I preview this post that I am somehow writing in Lilliputian font. I can't seem to fix it.)

some goals for 2010.

grow my hair out even more (it currently is a Jill-Scott-ish-afro length; but I'm going for an Erykah-Badu-ish-afro length)

save up for stuff for my kitchen (a Kitchen Aid mixer and some All-Clad cookware)

start making art with my photographs

record some songs (or at least figure out how to use Garage Band)

begin some method of getting in shape

get my piano tuned

get a new loveseat for the living room

buy some Etsy art

believe God for mind-bending miracles

the simple things.

Last Tuesday, I stumbled across this sublime blog somehow, called Soul Aperture. The writer, Christina, had written this incredibly blessed post, simply titled, The Simple Things.

I loved reading her list of simple, everyday things that enrich life for her. She invited others to join in and post their own lists. I decided to do one for Thanksgiving-time, since so many are reflecting on what makes them thankful. I am very thankful for so much, and I reflect on that often during the year, not just during November. However, there are lots of things that I think we really do take for granted -- nondescript, barely-there or ever-underlying things that keep us going every day even though we don't notice them. They truly are simple things. I believe that it's the simple things that, if we think about it for a moment we will realize, actually make us happiest.

I could go on quite a long time with my list, but I'll keep it short.

the simple things.

the kidlets' belly laughs

decaf coffee with flavored creamer

christmas carols

scented lotion

looking at pretty pictures

pot roast in the slow cooker

going for a drive

my son practicing the guitar

playing games with dice

my husband's eyes

listening to opera and jazz

watching old movies

twinkle lights

cocoa puffs

window shopping

a friend's sweet voice on the phone

cool breezes

apple cider with caramel syrup

visiting with good friends

my baby's soft skin

singing, singing, and more singing

remembering.

I was looking through photos I've taken over the last year and a half, and I got to thinking about some of the wonderful times I've had with my family. I am so blessed to have them, and grateful. I'm not thinking about this because it's November and there's a "gratefulness" theme going on (though that's all well and good), because I stop and reflect on the awesome things about life quite often.

Right now I'm remembering this time last year. My husband was working out of town for several months, and we had just arrived in Charlotte from Albany, New York. While driving down from Albany, the weather was so gorgeous, we admired all of the scenery, I of course slept as did the kids, and we just enjoyed being together and making memories. We actually ended up being "accidental tourists" in New York City in the middle of the night (a post that I'll share later, with pictures) and we had so much fun!

We had a lot of great times while living in Charlotte too. It wasn't until March that my husband's project there was over, and while he was glad to come home, it was also kind of sad to leave. We had developed our own little stomping grounds there. Just a few of the things I miss:

walking to Romano's Macaroni Grill for dinner

Destiny Bubble Tea (wow that was so amazing!)

taking my kids to the nearby park and lake

the bread pudding at MiMi's Cafe (I think there's one in Atlanta though)

driving across the state line to South Carolina for church on Sundays

my weekly grocery shopping trip to Bloom

Very small things, but fond memories nonetheless. I wonder what kinds of awesome memories are in store for us this year.

found: wardrobe choices.

So, it's been a couple of YEARS since my last "found" post. I was reading over my blog archives the other day, and I started thinking about maybe bringing back a couple of elements that I had before. Like the "found" posts. I may not put every single link in the sidebar though; I'm thinking maybe I'll do posts of a select number of "found" links relating to a particular category. If the category has anything to do with art and design, or home comforts, I'll probably put those things in the sidebar.

Today the category is clothing. I've found some great sites that I've bookmarked or saved somewhere else or written down or whatever...

One is Shabby Apple. I've written several recommendations about this company over at thisnext because I am so impressed with their clothing. They have the most awesome dresses. Not only that, but they have incredible dresses for young girls. I could spend a lot of money over there. I think there are about seven or eight dresses on my perpetual wish list.

Another fine source is Shade Clothing. They also have lovely dresses that look ultra-comfortable and easy to wear, like this one. They also have a large selection of items for layering, tank tops and tees.

Down East Basics has a great selection of skirts. I also like their sweaters and tops. They also carry a maternity line, a young girls' line and a mens' line.

Tabeez describes their line as "trend-setting, modest apparel." They've got awesome tops (like this plaid ruffle top) and belts. They even have skin care and shoes.

And speaking of shoes, Wanted Shoes is an awesome site. I seriously want these boots. And these. I also want these mary janes. And these.

And if you have some serious money to spend, you could always invest in something like this lovely Orla Kiely dress, or this lovely ensemble from Kate Spade, or this J. Crew ensemble, or this sweet dress from Banana Republic.

Of course, Anthropologie is always good. Always. It's hard to resist when they offer outfits like

these.

I have found several wardrobe options on Etsy as well, but I will share those in another post.

One day I'll figure out html coding or whatever it is so that I can just post lovely collages of images from the internet instead of a bunch of links.

what's got me inspired right now.

balloons

Polaroids

owls

drums

watercolors

Snapple Peach Tea

pumpkins

stringed instruments

That's a sweet list. It's amazing how such little things bring such immense joy.